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Author Topic: Right age for OTS notching?  (Read 4517 times)

Offline biggraham610

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Right age for OTS notching?
« on: June 06, 2014, 05:06:15 pm »
I think I am right on the larvae, can anyone tell me if these are the right size to notch? I notched eggs on the other side of frame just in case. Thanks. G
Hived a nuc with a open mated queen today. Thats her laying pattern. 80% so far on mating flights. with one chance left to make it 100. :chop:







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Offline Better.to.Bee.than.not

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Re: Right age for OTS notching?
« Reply #1 on: June 06, 2014, 07:16:32 pm »
The first picture looks like you are notching 1 going into 2 day old eggs. you notch on the late 2nd-3rd day of larva stage. the second picture looks better.

remember 1)eggs laid 2)eggs lean 3)eggs lay down and hatch.->4) larva eats royal jelly, and you can usually see it in the cell. 5)larva gets much bigger, but hasn't filled the cell , this is when you notch 6)larva starts to fill the cell, you can still notch here 'possibly' but it's better to do it on day 5 going into day 6, imo. The next two days they will make them into queen cells and continue feeding them royal jelly. if they do not, they are not queens.

Offline Vance G

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Re: Right age for OTS notching?
« Reply #2 on: June 06, 2014, 08:10:18 pm »
The second picture looks good to me.  Please let us know if they take. 

Offline RHBee

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Re: Right age for OTS notching?
« Reply #3 on: June 06, 2014, 11:54:45 pm »
Second pic, second larvae. Based on a pic I found. I believe the idea is to notch larvae that would be suitable for grafting.




Later,
Ray

Offline marktrl

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Re: Right age for OTS notching?
« Reply #4 on: June 07, 2014, 01:01:47 am »
All the large scale queen breeders graft on day 4. You can notch eggs, they won't draw the cell out until they hatch but they will draw it and make a queen.

Offline Michael Bush

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Re: Right age for OTS notching?
« Reply #5 on: June 07, 2014, 06:22:02 pm »
First pic is eggs, second pic is very young larvae and will do fine.  Now how did you prep the cell builder?
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Offline biggraham610

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Re: Right age for OTS notching?
« Reply #6 on: June 08, 2014, 09:08:23 pm »
First pic is eggs, second pic is very young larvae and will do fine.  Now how did you prep the cell builder?

Actually, the cell builder is just a queenless hive. I had previously offerred them a frame of all different ages from egg to capped and they failed to pull a queen cell. I was hoping this may give different results. Couldnt hurt to give it a try i figured. If they draw out a queen cell I was going to give them a frame of mostly capped to build up the force. What say you? Thanks.. G ..  :chop:
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Offline biggraham610

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Re: Right age for OTS notching?
« Reply #7 on: June 11, 2014, 12:45:12 am »
interesting results, the bees repaired the comb to original condition. could not even tell it had been touched, they had built their own cup on the next frame over and apparently moved the egg/larvae THEY chose to use. interesting. G :chop:
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Offline RHBee

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Re: Right age for OTS notching?
« Reply #8 on: June 11, 2014, 01:40:59 am »
Cool to know. Thanks for the update.
Later,
Ray

Offline biggraham610

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Re: Right age for OTS notching?
« Reply #9 on: June 16, 2014, 01:00:04 am »
I must have missed her, no wonder they repaired the comb. Still the QC they started is full and capped now, she looks good and is laying in every availible cell. What to do? Hive is light on bees, gonna shake in some nurses tommorrow, but in the meantime, think I should tear down the cell? She is doing great from what I can see. They had alot of the frames full of nectar and pollen, but she is plugging every empy cell. G  :chop:







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Offline RHBee

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Re: Right age for OTS notching?
« Reply #10 on: June 16, 2014, 01:24:32 am »
You could make up a nuc.
Later,
Ray

Offline biggraham610

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Re: Right age for OTS notching?
« Reply #11 on: June 16, 2014, 01:28:30 am »
You could make up a nuc.

Ray, My math has the cell hatching on the 25th. Should I just pull a couple frames of bees and brood, pollen and honey from another hive and cut out the q cell and add it. I dont want to pull the queen, the hive is on the brink, cant have no more breaks. If so, when is it safe to pull the cell, I understand there is a sensitive window during development. Thanks. G
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Offline RHBee

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Re: Right age for OTS notching?
« Reply #12 on: June 16, 2014, 05:03:11 am »
If it were me I would swap that frame for a brood frame from another hive then populate the nuc as you described. I wouldn't cut the cell or move your queen.
Later,
Ray

Offline Better.to.Bee.than.not

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Re: Right age for OTS notching?
« Reply #13 on: June 16, 2014, 05:22:45 am »
Roger what RHBee said. worse comes to worse you will hopefully have two queens laying, and instead of over wintering the nuc, you can do a join later if you wish. With more queens laying, it equals more bees. always good to have nucs with laying queens around a plenty. Always. Need a queen for some reason? you have a nuc with one in it. need more bees, you have a nuc with some in it, or even brood frames. When your hives come out of winter and are weak, always good to have nucs around to jump start their build up in the spring.  over winter nucs side by side next to each other and they all help keep each other warm, and if you lose some or even all...what have you lost really? nothing, except a initial few frames of brood, which can always repay back later after the new queen lays. still plenty of time for that.


Offline biggraham610

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Re: Right age for OTS notching?
« Reply #14 on: June 16, 2014, 03:50:59 pm »
Thanks to you both. Thats a plan. G :chop:
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Offline biggraham610

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Re: Right age for OTS notching?
« Reply #15 on: June 19, 2014, 08:32:57 pm »
Well, as usual, I was late. Went today and the virgin had hatched. No eggs. had larvae and capped cells, here is her slender self. Guess the waiting and hoping game is on again. if you scroll back to my last post, I see a mark on the old queens abdomen. Wonder if that was mite damage and thats why they replaced her? Anyhow, this ones crawilng around covering ground looking in cells, hopefully she gets mated. G :chop:
 





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